McDonald's Going All-Recycling By 2025

McDonald's Corp. (MCD) said Tuesday that all of its packaging worldwide will come from renewable, recycled or certified sources by 2025, up from the current figure of 50 percent.

The fast food giant also aims to recycle guest packaging in all its restaurants by then, compared with only 10 percent of its restaurants currently.

McDonald's said that by 2025, 100 percent of its guest packaging will come from renewable, recycled, or certified sources with a preference for Forest Stewardship Council or FSC certification. This includes items like straws, bags, wrappers and cups.

This expands upon McDonald's existing goal that by 2020, 100 percent of its fiber-based packaging, such as burger boxes and McDonald's bags, will come from recycled or certified sources where no deforestation occurs.

McDonald's, which has 37,000 locations worldwide, said that it understands recycling infrastructure, regulations and consumer behaviors vary city to city and country to country around the world. However, the company plans to be "part of the solution and help influence powerful change."

Francesca DeBiase, McDonald's Chief Supply Chain and Sustainability Officer, said, "Our customers have told us that packaging waste is the top environmental issue they would like us to address. Our ambition is to make changes our customers want and to use less packaging, sourced responsibly and designed to be taken care of after use, working at and beyond our restaurants to increase recycling and help create cleaner communities."

In order to attain these goals, McDonald's will work with leading industry experts, local governments and environmental associations to improve packaging and recycling practices.

McDonald's first began its focus on sustainable packaging almost 25 years ago after it established a partnership with Environmental Defense Fund or EDF.

According to the company, the initiative eliminated more than 300 million pounds of packaging, recycled one million tons of corrugated boxes and also reduced waste by 30 percent in the decade following the partnership.

McDonald's joined WWF's Global Forest & Trade Network program in 2014 and set its fiber sourcing targets, including FSC preference for packaging made from wood fiber.

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